By Iffath Sharif and Jamele Rigolini
World Bank

Around the world, governments invest billions in labor market programs—support for self-employment and microenterprises, training initiatives, job placement services, and wage subsidies—all designed to connect people with better employment opportunities. The results? A mix of notable successes and disappointing impacts. However, the key question is not whether these programs work, but rather: What makes the difference between a program that has a real impact and one that fails?

To answer this question, the World Bank Group, in partnership with the Global Conference on the Labour Market, published the document What Works for Work: A Guidebook to Proven and Promising Employment Solutions (i) (What Works for the Labour Market: A Guide to Proven and Promising Employment Solutions). The publication contains a comprehensive catalogue of more than 100 employment solutions from around the world and provides policymakers with a practical resource for identifying challenges and selecting interventions that work.

While structural reforms that promote long-term growth are essential for sustained job creation, there are urgent labor market needs that require immediate action. More than 2 billion people remain trapped in informal, often precarious, jobs, and employment solutions, such as active labor market programs, regulatory reforms, and alignment of social programs, are effective tools for addressing these urgent challenges.

Here are four main conclusions:

1. High-performing employment programs can generate transformative impacts

The best-performing programs in low- and middle-income countries can generate improvements in income or employability that can be four to five times greater than usual interventions.

He Employment Fund Program (i) Nepal, for example, has increased revenues by up to 721% through short-term, market-oriented vocational training and results-based partnerships with training service providers. The latter receive higher payments for course participants who find employment and may also be eligible for additional incentives to train people from vulnerable groups.

2. The impacts can last far beyond the duration of the intervention

High-performing employment programs can have lasting benefits. Data from a growing number of evaluations show that positive impacts on employment or income can persist for three to ten years.

In Colombia, within the framework of the program Youth in Action (i) Three months of classroom training and three months of unpaid internships were provided, in addition to a small stipend. Payment to training institutions was based on the completion of the students' internships and the resulting job placements. The program increased formal employment by four percentage points, even between three and nine years after the intervention.

3. Well-designed employment solutions pay for themselves.

Many programs generate returns that exceed the initial investment. Through the Employment and Opportunities Project for Young People (i) In Kenya, which provides donations and training to start or develop a microenterprise, annual income per beneficiary increased by USD 387, allowing an internal rate of economic return of 100 % to be achieved and costs to be recovered in less than one year.

4. Programs can be successful even in fragile and conflict-affected environments

Fragility, conflict, and violence need not prevent success, provided that program design and implementation are adapted to these challenges. In Nigeria, for example, the Community-Based Skills Training Program (i) It focused on the conflict-affected northern region of the country, and increased self-employment or salaried employment by between 35 and 40 percent, self-employment income by 38 percent and salaried income by 55 percent.

Now face the job challenge

These successful programs share five common design principles: contextual adaptation, broad reach, incentive alignment, private sector participation, and integration with social protection. By adhering to these principles and grounding programs in empirical evidence, governments can transform employment solutions into strategic investments that foster more productive, inclusive, and resilient labor markets.

These high-impact solutions can be particularly useful when governments in low- and middle-income countries face increasing pressure to create jobs amid dwindling resources and slowing economic growth. The document What Works for Work It constitutes an operational resource that offers concrete examples, a catalog of adaptable programs, and a step-by-step guide to help policymakers design interventions that generate significant and lasting results.